Mystic Mindset Book 2: The Tallests' AID
by Whirl Feather
Summary: Stupidly accused, A.I.D. Estat' was distraught: crashed on an unknown world, forsaken by her Tallests, barely able to control her abilities, and injured, she figured it was over. Then Dib answered the call of the strange. Now she's being trained, befriended, defended, spoken for, and hunted. She's blacked out, fought injuries, found a sister, studied…and they're still not safe.
1. Prologue: Striking Deals

The Tallests' each squinted at the huge window-screen, their offer having been rejected by their Tactics Commander, Diz. She'd been growing…_bothersome_ since they sent her to Earth to start the Milky Way Invader Checkpoint with Invader Pleecy. If bothersome was really the right word to use; not annoying, but she wasn't the same as she was when _O: ID2_ began. She'd kill anybody (Commander-trained-assassin. Weird, huh?) or have someone _else _do it for her, depending. Diz was more…ruthless, maybe that's the right word. Oh, what did it matter? She refused their request, so it seemed they'd have to jump to Plan B…if that's the right level of planning.

Red turned from the screen with a spoiled, "Humph. Well, that didn't go as planned..."

"Can't we just blow up the planet she's on?" Purple asked, turning away as well and taking the bag of chips handed to him by one of their assistants-in-waiting.

"Oh _yes_, blow up the random planet you sent our former A.I.D. to, which also has Diz and Pleecy on it. _Good plan_," Red replied sarcastically.

"Hey, _I _didn't do that!_ You_ did! You got all huffy when that one invader messed up the plan!"

"_Me? _That was all you and you know it! I was going to –"

The screen behind them began to blink with white Irken lettering; i_permission to enter: Karue and escorts_.

"About time," the ruby-eyed alien muttered, and then called to the pilots, "Let them in!"

The automatic doors opened their enormous girth wide, and a blue-eyed Irken in a slightly ragged, caped outfit similar to Tak's (except blue, obviously) was shoved harshly through the door. His triangular antennae bobbed as his knees hit the cold metal floor down the ramp from the Tallests' circular platform. One eye seemed slightly swollen, and the other had an old scratch scar, now green and gold with healing and time. There were a few slave-driver-styled guards to either side of him, like the kind found on conquered planets, each holding a thick chain attached to the high-tech handcuffs pinning the prisoner's hands behind his back, just below his PAK.

"Ah, Karue, you _rogue_," started Red. He pointed a talon at the scorned Irken down the ramp. "After all this time, we finally arrest you, and now…" Tallest Red sighed, deflated slightly.

"We're setting you free!" finished the purple-eyed Irken to his left through a half full and crumby mouth, tossing arms (and crumbs) to the air frivolously.

The Irken with sapphire eyes jerked his head up from its hateful bow suddenly, straightening. _"What?"_

The guards and pilots in the cockpit all looked at their Tallests. Did they have brain worms!? Set _him_ free?! _Him?!_

"That's right," cooed Red slyly.

"What kind of game are you playing?" the prisoner asked, ignoring his vow to himself _not_ to look _up_ the ramp at _them _and narrowing his eyes apprehensively.

"Uhm, m-my Tallests, you can't be serious…!?" asked one of the pilots to Red's right tentatively.

Purple leaned behind Red a little, another couple of chips inhabiting his mouth, "We're _very_ serious."

The prisoner pulled at his chains, going from knees to an almost-stand; he was surprisingly medium-tall. "Why in Good Myuki's Reign would the two of you – "

The two leaders flinched a little at the cuss as the guards yanked the fugitive back down to his knees.

"We're getting there!" Red half-shouted, and regained his composure. _He_ _was_ this Irken's leader, after all; Rogue or not. Traitor...

"We've been…talking," began Purple, serious once again and drumming his 3 meager talon-fingers together. "And we thought, what with your expertize in assassination and all, Karue, you'd do us a favor!"

"Succeed, and…" Red sighed reluctantly, deflating again, "you get your freedom back." He gave his eyes a small roll and crossed his arms.

The Irken before them seemed to mull this over, "…_Who,_ exactly, has you so _annoyed_ that you'd strike such a _risky_ deal?" he said with just a drop of sarcastic concern.

"Our current A.I.D. –"

"_Not_ so current anymore, though," Purple tossed in.

"Right: _former_ A.I.D. Estat''s plan for a planet failed due to some Irken messing up. The punishment was banishment (and ultimately death, really), but apparently she's still alive."

"You want me to take out a _girl?_ You're _A.I.D.?_ Are you two crazy?" OF course, he already knew the answer to that; most Irkens had soemthing jacked up in the head, whether it be a defect or just the odd compulsion to follow these idiots. Thank Irk he was born mostly without that urge.

The duo stared daggers down the slope. "No, just merely want a job finished," Red said angrily at last. A sense of finality danced in his response.

The prisoner, apparently named Karue, said nothing, face showing his heated disinterest.

"The guards will escort you to the Docking Bay for supplies, your belongings returned, and, of course, a tracker, as well as a new ship," Red said with a tiny trace of a malicious tone. Another argument won. Another conflict with this turnPAK crushed. Tallests 2, Karue the Rogue...nevermind.

Karue glanced back with a glimmer of contempt at the ruling duo as the guards led (more like dragged) him back out the door.

**Author's Note ~ I do not own the term A.I.D. (Assistant in Doom) I just heard it somewhere, not sure where, and it stuck with me. ^.^; **

**This is the Prologue, and of course I forget to type THIS first . Ah well. I wasn't too out of character with the Tallests, was I?**


	2. Dib Strikes Gold

**Author's Note ~ whoo! Book two! This starts out after the Memebranes left at the end of Book 1. If you haven't read Book 1, it shouldn't be too hard to keep up :) Also, I'm posting stories I write on here freom now on on Deviantart as well. My username is IceLuxray. **

**EDIT: sorry I posted this chapter before the PRologue initially ^.^;**

Pleecy and Diz walked down a hallway lower down in Pleecy's labs. This particular one led to the 'blueprint room', as Pleecy called it; it was actually a room for planning as well as blueprints. Blueprints _are _planning, so why not just call it _that?_

"So, Pleecy, how's he going to be? I-I mean," Pleecy looked to her left at her, "he'll be ok, right? Like no side effects…?"

"Oh," the Mystic said in an understanding tone. "Well, he'll be fine." Pleecy's face seemed bored, tired even; her eyelids were just slightly drooped, looking in a way like the Tallests' eyes always were. Her tone was blunt and ending, like that was the last word on the subject needed and that one sentence explained it all. She looked back ahead, antennae bobbing a little with the motion.

The tone of her voice set Diz's commander-trained-with-speech-patterned brain off automatically. "And…?" she coaxed, slightly annoyed that the Blue Irken was hiding something. "The whole story, please," she said after a few seconds in the politely demanding tone of a commander.

Pleecy sighed, deflating momentarily. "I set a spell to lock their memories once they got home and to whatever place it is that they usually are so it would seem as if the past few weeks had been normal. Except for Gaz, obviously. Dib's perfectly fine, like I said, but his DNA is slightly…'different' now. That's it."

"_Locked_ their memories?" Diz asked with a small trace of skepticality.

"Heh, yeah," she breathed. "Locking memories is similar to wiping their brain of some memory, but instead of erasing it, the memory is moved from the usual memory banks of the brain to the deep subconscious area: the person who's memory was locked would then only ever know of the memory through vague wisps of dream, as if they never knew it," her explanation carried an air of magic.

"Okay…and you said his DNA was altered?"

"Not altered, per say, just…different. He's been Irken before, so now he'll have a few tweaks in his DNA even though he's been changed back."

"Like…?"

Pleecy replied testily with a slight glare. "You can stop interrogating me: we're almost to the Blueprint Room, anyway. _That's _where debriefings happen. Like the dream wisps I mentioned. Or some other things. And before you say _'like' _again, there might be instances where he shows traits of Irken, like being exceptional with technology unexplainably, or being affected by water in some way. That's the altered DNA part: some small bits of Dib's DNA would have still stayed Irken, like those same parts had stayed human when the Accident occurred. But they're so…'unseeable', let's say, that a standard human DNA test wouldn't really notice them. But Irken tests could. Or any other could. And an energy being could detect the Irken *Specieal Energy pattern from him now. That's about it. So other than tiny random occurrences of being unable to take a bath or eat meat, he's absolutely fine." They stopped before the door to the 'Blueprint Room'. Pleecy's mark glowed oh-so slightly, a purple-blue-green-opaque-grayish color, and a small luminous sphere was produced from the mark and floated to the blue digital scanner that looked like a human hand scanner to the left of the large, metal, dried blood, dark red-ish colored door; classic Irken color scheme. It opened, revealing a room that looked a lot like a Star Gate command room. "Now get in," she said crankily.

Diz purred not exactly to herself as she walked through the tall doorway, "Dreamy wisps, eh?"

Pleecy started in with her. "Oh shut it. That's what they are. Magical, parapsychological, wispily wistpity Dream Wisps," she joked with a partial smile.

**~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ ** _~Approximately a year later, around the end of February…(Three Days Earlier than the Prologue)~_

Dib plopped his head in his pale hands and stared out at the rain pelting the world, the street, the oddly green plants that had begun dotting the city lately; in yards, in random cracks in the sidewalk, even the trees around town seemed to have grown fuller, straighter, and obviously green. It was so strange, green leaves. Apparently rare in their current state of world, because he'd never really seen _pure_ green leaves.

And another thing that was strange was the fact that, in the past year (give or take), rain made him feel….wary. It was hard to explain, but sometimes he didn't want to go into it, or _near_ water, in fact, usually by some random piece of instinct or intuition. And believe it or not, he'd had times where even cold water hurt to touch! But these were times he could barely believe. He's human, that's improbable. Why would water that's not hot to the touch be hurtful?

Other than that, the past year had been quite decent: Pleecy and his dad seemed to get along pretty well, doing experiments or checking each other's work (mainly Pleecy correcting Professor Membrane, oddly) and such. Dib's father even seemed to have shaped up a bit as a dad since Pleecy started coming over more often – not much of a shape up, but still, _that_ in itself is a miracle.

Agent Darkbootie even introduced Dib to an Examiner: that is, a Swollen Eyeball member who analyzes evidence professionally that is sent in. Examiners are usually kept secret from other SE members, so Dib was excitedly befuddled when DarkBootie assigned one specific Examiner called Agent Bluewing to help Dib with his investigations, mainly the digital evidence. Then Gaz yelled at Dib for all his excited noises.

Pleecy had started inviting the Membrane children over for dinner sometimes, when their father worked late and couldn't come too (it was amazing: she got him to come home 3 times a week!), and Dib had to admit, her cooking was pretty decent. _Way_ better than the Skool's food! Gaz didn't like some of it, strangely enough. She'd ask what the heck was in it, and Dib would say to her it's fine, then the next time Pleecy made that dish there'd be two different kinds, one of which Gaz would like. He'd just figured that it was two different styles of cooking. Both tasted great to him, anyway. Oh well, Gaz had always been curious when it came to food.

The Skool was still as torturous, speaking of sketchy food and bullying kids, and Zim was still…well, as 'Zimmy' as ever, though he seemed to have started to not bug Dib as much since last Easter - more scowly and grudging instead of hating, really. He guessed _that_ had to do with the way Pleecy glared at Zim when Zim messed with him. Hahahahahahaha! Stupid alien! Afraid of a female human, are we? _Now_ who's pathetic!? Huh? Huh? Huh!? Then Pleecy would elbow in the side – hard - and glare at Dib.

Today was one of those days where Dib had somehow finished his homework and one of those days where Pleecy had something to do…Apparently, she was helping another friend of hers with something today. _Sooo_ Dib was now bored leaning with his head in his hand against the window and sill and watching the rain come down. Every once in a while his eyes might flick to the driveway, or to the kitchen since he was debating getting a snack.

Another finger of lightning flicked to the earth, over the city park again. That was the fifth strike in a row Dib had watched hit _that exact_ area. His brow furrowed skeptically. Something was undeniably up, and begging for him to investigate. Dib grabbed his vest from its drying spot on the living room chair and his haphazardly tossed to the couch camera on his hurried way out the door, ignoring Gaz's complaints about him leaving and not coming home until way late and her threats of locking all the doors, _and_ the windows.

**~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ * ~ *~ **He pulled his arm through the vest's sleeve whilst crossing the road, which in hindsight was a bad idea, but hey, he survived it. The rain pelted down, hard and larger than usual, and the wind started to slowly pick up from about zero.

Another lightning strike slashed down and split the evening and the flashes of light glinted against Dib's glasses. At least, Dib thought it was still evening; it was only after supper, but the clouds covered the sun thickly, much worse than the city smog he was horribly used to usually did.

_Six strikes in the same place! That's certainly not normal! Something is definitely up over there, _he thought to himself as he hurried through the airborne waterfall of a storm. He pulled his vest around him a little, even though that wouldn't really do much, "Man, I why didn't I bring an umbrella? Stupid!"

After a few minutes of wet running – probably best called sloshing – Dib was thankful for the shelter of the trees near the park's entrance and stopped to catch his breath. He frowned determinedly at it, pulling the sleeves of his vest back up and fixing the camera around his neck before he strided in.

It wasn't long before he saw the crash site.

He only walked a few minutes before rounding a tree-made rightward corner and gasping. His eyes widened at the mess before him; a ship similar to Zim's had crashed, a ditch dug out behind it and a few green bushes around the area lit slightly on fire. "Oh my _god…_" he mused, moving farther towards it and to the tree's other side. Another strike of lightning to his right made him jump, withdrawing his arms to himself and leaning over on one foot in a flinch. He relaxed when he saw something leaned over by a tree nearby.

The agent walked over curiously, a few steps away from the wreckage. A green, ash-covered form sat at the base of a lightly blackened tree. He could see the tips of ball-topped, curly antennae dangling near its hips, and it was leaned over with its hands supporting itself from the ground. Its outfit, scorched and ashy but still shining its natural gold underneath, reminded him of Pleecy's, baggy and opened, long sleeves with a fluffy, multi-layered, V-shaped collar. When it blinked, he saw the large, gold, Irken eyes flash under the green, dirty skin briefly. Even its bright purple eyelashes were somewhat dirty. Dib walked over to in front of the slightly hunched over form in a joyous daze.

"An…an…an…" Dib stammered, shaking and pointing with bent elbow. The being's eyelids perked up from their drowsy look, the golden orbs under them rolling slowly upwards from the ground to him. They seemed to glow or glitter in the dark like Zim's would.

Just like Zim.

Even though he told himself not to look in the eyes, he thought they seemed desolate and lifeless, almost. The gold and green alien pulled itself back against the tree, pushing off just a little bit with its arms and its back doing the rest, the charred fabric rustling as it moved. Its – no: _she_, stupid!—back plopped softly against the tree with a slight thump. She still looked at Dib expectantly. Only when it glittered before another strike did Dib notice the lightning-with-two-dots marking on her forehead. He flinched again before relaxing and looking back down sadly at her.


	3. Back in the Bay

Pleecy and Bibla were chatting on Pleecy's couch, catching up on what they had missed of each other's life since Pleecy helped her in a crisis when Dib kicked the door in, dripping wet with slimy, sketchy city rain and holding an ashen figure equally sobbing in his arms, scowling. The being was unconscious.

The Skunk Girl leaned around Pleecy to see, and the apparent human girl turned around in her seat to face Dib. Her brow furrowed slightly at the limp form in her friend's arms.

* * *

Pleecy paced a little in her med bay, hands clasping her forearms behind her back. She had asked Bibla to leave before bringing Dib down into her extensive maze of labs. Pleecy would have called Diz immediately, but she figured Diz would be busy with the Invader Checkpoint. The strange being from Dib's alleged crash site lay on a hospital-styled bed, the second one in the row. Dib stood at the bed's left, waiting for Pleecy to explain.

Her medical bay was a long, rectangular room, easily 10 by 100 or so feet, with the standard Irken dark red color scheme. Hospital gurneys with IV racks and sidetables next to them lined the left wall all the way down; Dib's find was on the second bed from the door. The right wall had desks jutting from the wall and many cabinets like a doctor's office. There were a few trash shutes as well. The door was in the right upper corner nearby. Dib felt an odd uneasiness whenever he was here.

He had his arms crossed and a slight scowl on his face. Finally, he spoke up fiercely, "Pleecy, come _on!_ What's got you all worked up? Shouldn't we be, you know, doing…something…?" Dib was originally going to say about dissecting or investigating, but the memory of the look in the Irken's eyes and why he actually _brought_ her here popped back into his head and _that_ shut _that _train of thought up.

Pleecy stopped pacing when he was done asking (or rather, trailing off), stopping off to Dib's left abruptly. She put her hands to Dib's shoulders gently, but firmly. "Dib," she started slowly, "what do you remember about last Easter?"

Dib blinked, "What sort of question's that? How's that relevant to what I just said? -"

"Dib!"

"Okay, geez; Nothing, really. Skool as usual, candy from Dad, assignment from Darkbootie a few days later. Nothing special. - "

"Wrong," Pleecy said hastily, and just as hastily turned away and took a few steps forward, almost chewing a knuckle.

"…Wait _what?_" Dib exclaimed, a bit panicky. What the heck was she talking about?

Pleecy spun back to him and put her hands to his shoulders, this time more in a grabbing way, "Dib I'm going to do something. Just _please _don't panic or anything." She talked in a very serious, speedy way, like the angry Doctor.

Before Dib could query or object, a neon blue flash erupted from the girl's eyes. Dib's mind swam insanely with memories of the past Easter vacation; shattering the test tubes, turning Irken, waiting in suspense for Pleecy and Ley to return to Earth with the ingredients to change him back, _everything._ Suddenly all the times when he was cautious of water made sense, and so did the 'cold cut burns', and the knack for fixing things. All kinds of things came unraveled as the emotions and pain and events all made sense, or all came back to him, and eventually it gave him a terrible headache, like blunted stabbing. His 'vision' grew spotty and he grabbed at his head, squinting in agony until the spasm subsided.

He dared look back up, blinking and a little fatigued from the pain, slightly squinting until his vision evened out; it was a tiny bit better than usual, slightly clearer. He winced again as a last wave of throbbing rolled over his brain like a ball over his forehead, everything sliding back into place, and all the confusion and discomfort disappeared – _poof._

"Phew," he mumbled, wiping his head nonchalantly with eyes casually closed. A digital rippling sound and Pleecy's voice opened his eyes again. Though it wasn't exactly the Pleecy he knew.

The scythe-haired agent almost freaked out when he saw the blue-skinned Irken who had taken his friend's place. "Ah, much better," she murmured to herself, smoothing her red, long billowy sleeved dress and looking back up, "Ya' okay Dib?" The silver-tipped antennae that looked like Dib's hair turned backwards, just a good bit longer, bobbed with the motion.

"Uh…I guess…" he replied in a mutter, absently rubbing a temple.

"Oh, it hurt that bad? Sorry, I wasn't sure how that would affect you," Pleecy's dual-colored, blue eyes flicked down in embarrassment.

Dib held a hand out, "No, no, I'm fine. Brain may have exploded, but I'm fine…" The Irken Mystic just laughed, eventually joined by the mostly-human boy. "So, what has you upset?" Dib's laughter curtly cut off and was swapped out with a prodding question and a look to match.

Pleecy sighed, and cast her glance to the golden-clothed female on the gurney. The one happy moment had ended so quickly. "She's my sister."

There was a shriek of lightning and a roll of thunder heard – surprising that it was hearable, all the way down here, in the subterranean Irken labs – as the lighting in the room all of a sudden went out. All that Dib could see was the two Mystics' eyes and marks barely shimmering in the sudden curtain of dark and a few tiny machine lights.


	4. New Awakening

"Whoop, I got it!" Pleecy called out in the dark. When the lights in the room flickered back on, Dib saw Pleecy leaning on the wall by one hand, mark glowing like crazy, a smile almost as bright as the mark. Well, a lopsided smile, anyway…

Dib blinked and rubbed at his eyes and temples for a few moments, looking back up at the Mystic when his recently retweaked eyes readapted. Who would've thought he'd still have partial Irken eyes? (Well, he_ did_ just remember what had happened last Easter, so no wonder he didn't notice) And for that matter, who would have thought that Irken eyes were so light sensitive?

"Power outage," she said. "Must've been some bolt to make half the labs go out."

"Only _half?_ How do _you_ know?"

" 'Cause I can feel it. Like in I feel energy, pretty much. Electricity is just another form of it. I sent an energy pulse into the electricity wires for certain rooms, like this one, but it won't last long." She started toward the auto door, pausing in the doorway. "I have to go down and reboot the system, I'll be right back. I'll need you to watch her until then. The house's computer will monitor the room in case," she said while leaning out the doorway, turning back into the elevator before it closed behind her. Dib could slightly hear the machinery whirring as the elevator descended.

Another boom of thunder resonated through the base, countless tons of rock and cold hard metal muffling it. Even so, Dib flinched a little. His find stirred on the bed, and he thought he heard her moan or squeak. His eyes flicked to her when her head turned to the side, eyes scrunched momentarily. Dib thought he heard her pant, too…and he noticed that her mark had begun to spark like a severed wire.

"Uh, i-is that a bad thing…?" he asked to the air, more to the computer, somewhat to himself. He felt silly talking to thin air, but hey, how else was one to communicate with a house?

Something in the ceiling sent down a red, angled scanning light, which flickered a little as it moved over the Irken's body. "It appears that she's starting to regain consciousness. However, the fluxuating of her mark may be a bad sign."

"What!? Why?"

"She's a Lightning Mystic: the lightning strike hit the house and went into her body. Her instincts kicked in and summoned it to help her regain consciousness. I'm afraid that if this continues, the house may short circuit."

"What would happen then?"

"…Hard to tell. Most likely, _horrible_ things."

Well, an alien computer just hesitated and said _horrible_ things: that doesn't sound good. "So, will she wake up soon, hopefully, yes, maybe…?" Dib asked in a sort of tiny voice, partially starting to cover his mouth in anxiety.

"Oh, she's waking up at the moment. Though I must warn you, sir Dib, that Mystics in self-defense mode are highly –"

The being cringed in on herself, sitting up partially from the action, small tails of static lashing out briefly from her mark.

" – dangerous," finished the computer's voice.

"Self-defense mode? What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"It's when a Mystic's subconscious instincts take over; a defense mechanism, like growling for an Earth dog, except they don't realize they're doing it since they are not in control at that present time. For example, that static that erupted just now."

"instincts?" Dib mused out loud to himself (poor child). He heard a moan from the gurney and turned his attention from the tube-and-wire-covered ceiling back to the girl.

She had sat up, rubbing at her head and squeezing her eyes shut. Her odd, large, spirally antennae swayed a little. "Uh…what happened? C…computer? Ow…"

Dib hurried over to the gurney's left side and laid a hand tentatively on hers, the computer cautioning him against it, "Sir Dib, I wouldn't do that – "

The girl flinched away from him, withdrawing her hands to herself, leaning away and looking down at Dib with wide eyes, and Dib looked at his hand (as the brief touch had shocked him) quickly before meeting her eyes.

Terrified.

Her eyes looked as wild as an abused dog. He could just hear her shaky breathing. She squeezed her eyes together again, head cringing in, as her mark began another series of sparks and her hands flew from being pressed to her chest to being pressed to her temples. She cried out somewhat, too.

"A-are you okay?" Dib tried asking, warily reaching a hand up at her.

The sparking sputtered out, and she deflated in relief. Her eyes went wide when she opened them and noticed the hand her face had stopped in front of. The Irken looked down the arm to the pale face, bespectacled nose and tiny-irised, tawny eyes.

"W-what's wrong with your eyes? Why are they so…so tiny?" she suddenly asked, panic laced in her shy-sounding voice. It sounded to Dib that her voice was similar to Pleecy's, except that this Irken's voice was more quiet and airy.

Dib blinked at the question, looking down at the middle of his glasses. Something's wrong with his eyes?

"Yeah, t-they're all…s-shrunken…" she replied.

"What?" Dib furrowed his brow. This one doesn't read minds too, does it?

"Y-you asked if something was wrong with your eyes after I asked."

_Oh great, I thought out loud again, _the human thought to himself, _what a first impression._ "Well, uh…m-my eyes are fine, except, y'know, for the nearsightedness, but uh…" he cleared his throat. "I-I'm a human. I-I don't think you'd…know what that is, but, uh…w-welcome to Earth, I guess…you-re not like, invading or anything, are you?"

The Irken girl blinked, seeming to have calmed down. He appeared to be nervous too. She scooted to the edge of the bed, hopped off the bed's left side, wandered a few steps between her bed and the next, placed a hand to the wall with a serious face. "Yes, I-i've heard of humans, somewhat, and no, I'm not an invader. What are you doing in an Irken base? A-and where am I? You're human, you said, s-so am I on…_Errth_, then?" She had to pause and remember the word that had been floating around the Massive the past few moons.

"Earth, yeah. A-are you okay?" Dib asked again, walking up to her.

She put a palm to her forehead with a little pressure, "I-I-I don't know. Last thing I remember is the computer's proximity warning, a-a-and then I hit the atmosphere…" the female Irken leaned on the hand she'd placed on the wall above the gurney's sidetable.

Dib glanced around the room, letting her catch her breath and collect her thoughts. It'd been so long since he had been in this room (and allowed to remember). Just being in it gave him chills. It didn't help that only half of the lights in the room were on, sending the lower half they faced into shadows. Fresh memories of that last night came to mind when he turned around, eyes crawling over the gurney that had once been his, the tables, the door, the first gurney in the row on the right side of the other bed.

His find's slightly airy voice broke him from his trancelike thoughts; "Where's this place's owner? …P-…pleecy, it's pronounced?"

"She's turning the lights back on. Y-you kinda caused a power outage, I-I think…" he stuttered automatically, not really having paid attention to her question, lost in his own thoughts. He snapped out of them, blinked in slight surprise, turned back to her. "Hey, how'd you know her name, anyway?"

"I hacked into the house's memory banks."

"You can do that sort of stuff too, huh?" he asked blandly. (More of a statement than a question, really.)

"What do you mean? 'Too'?"

"Pleecy's all magic-y, like you are, I'm guessing…?"

"Mystic," corrected the computer. "Master Pleecy is an energy Mystic. Sir Dib, she's on her way back up, by the way."

Dib brightened up a little. "O-oh, good." _God, can this be any more weird?_ _Just my luck. Like there aren't enough Irkens on this planet. At least Zim's not one of these mystic-_things_._

"Dib, watch your thoughts, bud," Pleecy chirped as the elevator door opened. She stood with a jesting smirk on her face and her pelvis tilted, a hand on her left hip. Dib felt his face heat up a little.

"Really, Pleecy?"

"Yes, Dib; really. Now then," she lightly clapped her hands together, "let's get to know our visitor, shall we?" The Blue Irken walked up to the ashened Irken girl and stuck a hand out. "Hi~, I'm Invader Pleecy, assisting Tactics Commander Diz's with the Invader Checkpoint in the Milky Way." Pleecy looked her up and down, "I take it you're a Mystic, too?" she stated, quirking a nonexistent eyebrow. Dib thought he heard a twinge of hope in her voice.

Dib's find did the same, looking Pleecy over with divided, golden orbs trained to miss nothing. "Estat'," she said finally, and took Pleecy's hand with a friendly shake and tiny, tiny smile; Dib almost thought she had a blank face. "And I take it you're the famous Pleecy I've heard about."

"Heheh, yeah, t-that's 'prolly me," Pleecy responded, rubbing the back of her head lightheartedly. She cleared her throat, "Well, uh, how in the _world_ did you end up on _this_ world?"

Estat' glanced down, suddenly interested in her ash-covered boots. "It's a bit of a story. A-aren't you an energy Mystic? You couldn't just find out yourself?" She sounded even more anxious than before.

Pleecy sighed, putting a hand on Estat''s shoulder and looking down, exasperated. "Estat', sister, let me explain something to ya: I have to meditate every few days to help keep my abilities in check. So do you. I haven't gotten to do that today. Also, I can't go very long using my abilities willy-nilly; I have to tune out _sometime. _Then I have to meditate much later."

"Oh…" Estat' just barely understood.

Pleecy picked this up and facepalmed, "Who's your instructor?"

"Pardon?"

Pleecy sighed again. _Oh, my _God, she thought. "The Pacifist training you?"

"I…I didn't _have_ a Pacifist training me," Estat' replied, slightly wide eyed.

Pleecy went wide eyed too, "…Wait, _didn't_? What the heck?!"

Estat' looked back down. The corners of her eyes shined.

"Oh, no, no, it's okay. Here, c'mon Dib, let's sit down, eh?" Pleecy said, taking Estat' by the shoulders lightly and moving back toward the gurney. The trio hopped up and sat on it, Dib to Estat''s left, Pleecy to her right still.

She rubbed a dulled-gold, billowy sleeve over her face, smudging both the ash on her face and on the sleeve more. "…The-the Tallests had me convicted for something that wasn't even my fault…" she started, her wispy voice hoarser.


	5. Painful Story-Flashbacks

_ Her permission to enter cleared, Estát hurried through the opened autodoors into the Massive's cockpit, where her Tallests' waited - hopefully not_ too _angrily_._ She could see them conversing on the platform above. They had called her down not long after she had returned from the Invasion Command Ship at Blorch by teleporter, where she had been helping to tie up all the loose ends of the recent (in _Irken_ time 'recent') invasion. She had received a damage report just minutes before being summoned, and had gone over it quickly to herself before she had been summoned down. _

_ The report had made her almost _furious_; almost, anyway. She never really tended to get very upset. She was nice – and _different _– like that. _Highly_ different._

_ How could someone screw up that badly? Sure, it was an accident, but then someone started playing the blame-and-riot game! Had it only been the accident and not the chaos afterwards, then that would've been perfectly fine by her; _accidents happen._ Heck, Tallest _Myuki_ admitted to mistakes plenty of times, which nowadays would be _very_ unusual of a ruler, if one could even consider Red and Purple to be the typical example of Irken rulers. If only that blob thing hadn't absorbed her – she had shivered somewhat at the memory and gladly derailed that train of thought. _

Nevertheless_, she had been summoned, so there was little choice in the matter: either come down on her own or be dragged down by guards (which wouldn't do at _all_ for someone of her stature, let alone partial-unpredictableness as far as her 'shocking' abilities went)._

_ She hurried to the base of the ramp leading up to the Tallests' platform, did a quick one-kneed bow (as _she_ was allowed a quick one, given her rank), and walked up it to her Tallests, stopping on the platform but still near the ramp. This time she remembered to keep her dangling antennae and eager, generally positive-personalitied toes in check. Moving up even once to stand on her toes habitually, energetically again could make them even _angrier_ at her, _if _they _were_ angry; they sounded angry, anyway…hm. Perhaps not, now that she thought about it…_

"_My Tallests," she said in her almost-airy, Pleecy-Fluttershy-reminiscent voice to their turned backs as they talked with their advisor and requested more drinks from the 'assistants-in-waiting'._

_ Red was the first to turn around and acknowledge her, "Ah, Estát. We needed to talk to you about, eh, _something_. I'm guessing you heard about the accident down on Blorch…?"_

_ She nodded heartily a few times, a determined look on her face and _clearly_ evident in her sterned eyes. "I plan to see to it that it's all cleaned up so that construction can begin once again there," she said, eagerly and dutifully._

"_Yes, well, we're not so sure that you'll be, uh, '_around'_ at that point…" Purple piped up over his right shoulder, half turned around. The advisor was standing on the low, black catwalk encircling the platform reserved for only the _A.I.D._, advisor, and assistants-in-waiting attached to the platform's circumference. Purple was bent over a little ways towards him. _

_ The Electricity Mystic felt her __Squeedlyspooch_ _lurch uneasily. "W-w-what do you mean, my Tallest? I-is there a problem?" she asked anxiously, starting to grow wide-eyed like a sad, sad little puppy._

"_Well…" began Red awkwardly, "our advisor has brought a specific rule to our attention, for which the punishment of a failed plan being banishment and ultimately, eh, death…?" The last part seemed more like a question for the advisor and assistants-in-waiting, as Red had momentarily looked behind himself quizzically while ask-stating it._

_Estát felt her jaw drop in shock. _You're _kidding_ me,_ she thought. "My Tallests," she started, slowly, deliberately, having regained her composure out of sheer shock caused by _moreapparent_ idiocy, "the failure of my plan wasn't _my _fault, nor was I in the vicinity when it happened. Why would the punishment be on me _alone?_"_

"_W-well, it's _your _plan—" Red started._

"_And no one's sure what happened, exactly," the advisor added in behind him, holding up a finger. Most of his upper half was visible over the edge of the platform, due to the shelf he stood on and his obvious upper hand in the height department._

"_Uhr, r-right…" Red continued uncertainly._

_Estát's glare leaned around her Tallests' forms and over at the advisor, her absolutely unusual antennae swinging and eventually settling at an angle apart from the rest of her head. "I merely suggested what's best for the armada," he said, putting a fist to its opposite shoulder valiantly and closing his eyes, even tipping his head back oh-so-slightly to complete the look._

"_Right," she replied, glare nerved, "the armada. Not for petty rivalries or jealousy, of course."_

"_Petty rivalries? My _word,_ Miss Estát, how could you accuse me of such a thing?!" _

"_Oh, I'm not accusing, I'm just stating facts, I suppose." _

"_Well, ah…g-glad to see you understand, Estát. Perhaps if you end up surviving…" he trailed off, his statement sounding quite odd or dark to Estát near its end._

_Estát turned her attention back to the duo leaders. Red glanced back at the advisor and said something, apparently saying it too low for Estát to hear, and the advisor gave him a formal shake of the head, hands behind his back humbly, antennae oscillating side-to-side as he did so. _

_Estát, trying not to appear to be staring, diverted her steely-yet-worried eyes from the advisor back to the platform in time to see the advisor point at the room's few escape pods. Two guards roughly grabbed her by the arms and dragged her to the left side of the room, tossed her in a pod, and slammed shut the door. She jumped up and leaned against the glass, shimmery-wide-eyed. The last thing she saw before being enveloped in dusky, star-dotted space was her Tallests seeming argue with that _frickin' _advisor._

* * *

By the time she finished her story, Estát had gone from distraught to composed and stony, though tears could still be seen shining in the corners of her eyes, just like they had when she was tossed into the pod. Pleecy was fuming, and seconds later she thrust herself off the bed and marched off and out of the med bay. Dib felt his cellphone buzz in his vest pocket. He reached in and pulled it halfway out, shortly opening an angry text from Gaz telling him to get the…_Frick _home. He sighed. It _was_ surprising that she had noticed he had left, but she probably just wanted him to make/get supper already. In fact, her face was probably glued to her GS even as she sent the text.

Estát hadn't mentioned seeing an arc of electricity hopping over the walls inside spook the Tallests before she was sent off, or when her finger got shocked beforehand by the metal rim around the pod's wall. Somehow the thought made her smile almost secretly and laugh a little internally.

* * *

**Author's Note - Whoo! About time I published something XD sorry folks, I've just been busy with school and crap etc. etc. think I forgot that I had this to upload or something. ANYWAY, I've actually got a few chapters stockpiled/getting worked on lately. XD **

**And I finally got this one proofread/author-edited, which is good ^FT^. And I should be posting this chapter on DA some time today as well. I've got tons more stories that'll be posted on there, thoguh, because I keep getting ideas for a crossover of my one OC SkEye and other stuff XD. **

**R&R, please! ^.^ Thanks! **


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